Why would they possibly switch estate agent so quickly?

[hyperspacebug]

Couple of weeks ago we saw a really promising house on the market (in incredibly popular area) and I swiftly made an appointment to view it. The house was taken off the market about only 24hrs after we've been informed of it and the appointment was cancelled. They said it was because the vendor had sale falling through and so wants to hold of selling until after Christmas. Fair enough then.

But that didn't stop their first estate agent sending missive letters to many houses in the area boasting of impressive recent sales including generating overnight offer for this house but that the house has been taken off the market due to unfortunate...something like that.

And it's not even Christmas and this house is back on the market again, this time with different agent. Even after they apparently had an offer with previous agent.

Makes me suspect there are legal troubles....does this sound fishy to you too?

A similar thing happened with my neighbours but there were no dodgy legal troubles. They just weren't happy with the estate agent (found out he'd been lying to them about various things) and the offer they'd accepted was from a timewaster, so they took the house off the market, then went straight back on with a better estate agent. They swiftly got three good offers and have now accepted one. Guess what I'm saying is, if it doesn't add up from what the first estate agent told you, s/he may well be fudging the fact that they got ditched.

EAs are completely unscrupulous IME. It doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong with the house.
I would view the house and ask the new agent what happened before.

Thanks ladies. I did phone up to get an appointment and asked their current estate agent. Apparently the previous agent was marketing the house they were after (I can guess which house as it was local) - and it fell through. They just had got their offer accepted on another house which was with the present agents.

They are marketing the house 25K more than last time and it's incredibly popular area so I guess they are optimistic about getting bunch of offers again within 24 hrs.